


The Pathway to Go(o)d

by Katniss2000



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asgard (Marvel), Dom Loki (Marvel), Eventual Romance, F/M, Reader-Insert, Sexual Content, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2020-09-24 15:47:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20361049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katniss2000/pseuds/Katniss2000
Summary: In an Alternate Universe Loki managed to escape with the Tesseract and you stumble upon him and get sucked into an adventure.





	1. Meeting Mischief - Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Please, do not be shy and give me feedback. I'll try to update this story every week.  
Have fun reading!

You stumbled across the street. Everything was foggy around you and you could barely see anything. When you reached the stairs to your house, you tumbled down and suddenly, there was a green flash around you. 

It felt like you’re falling at first and your stomach started to turn, but then you found yourself in a beautiful garden. The sun was just rising and you took a moment to look at it with astonishment.  
After admiring the sunrise, you looked around. Behind you, there was a huge palace it seemed, whereas in front of you, the garden stretched as far as you could see. Right next to you was a fountain and you touched the marble it was made of and admired the statue placed upon it. 

There was no sign of how you got here, just a beautiful landscape and nothing else, nothing that would attract your attention or give you any hint of where you are or how you came here.  
You carefully walked towards the palace. There was a corridor which opens up into the garden. It was very long and you did not dare to wander around, afraid you’d get lost in this unknown place. So you decided to peek through the windows of the palace. 

You could see a tall man through one of the windows. He looked very handsome, especially since he wasn’t dressed yet. His skin was very light and he had black hair.  
You did know, it would probably be best to knock at his door and ask him, where you were, but you were far too fascinated to do so. It’s like you can’t turn your eyes away from the sight of this by now only half-naked man.

Suddenly, you feel a hand on your shoulder. As you turn around, you see the very same man looking down on you, whom you just witnessed getting dressed.  
Rash you put two and two together. “You’re Loki. Which means, I’m on Asgard, am I not?”, you do not avoid to meet his eyes. Trying to keep your calm and not make this more awkward than it needs to be. 

“One should not try to peek at me while I am undressed.”, he hisses, “Especially a weak mortal should not.” He tries to touch your cheek, but you quickly take a step back to avoid his touch.  
“How did I get here?”, you ask him, although you’ve already guessed the answer to that question. It must have been a portal, one of Loki’s secret portals. Which is why you ended up so close to the private quarters of the Prince of Lies.  
“Oh, I sense you already know how”, he also takes a step back to examine you from head to toes.  
You do feel yourself blushing, since you are not dressed properly for meeting a prince. But then again, when is anyone dressed up for such an occasion? You are wearing quite pretty black boots, but also a neon rainjacket, because the weather forecast said it should rain. Apparently not on Asgard. 

You try not to get overly excited at the fact that you just stumbled into another realm, which happens to be glorious Asgard and met a god. Honestly, you think that Loki will try to get rid of you as quickly as possible. You half expect him to just take you and shove you back into the portal. But he seems to be coming up with different plans as he walks around you, examining you further.

“It is quite unfortunate for you, that you have seen me, mortal”, he says, opening the door to his rooms and pushing you inside. Confused you look at him, but he does not bother to explain anything to you.  
“You will stay in my rooms until I return to you. You shall not return to Midgard for now”, he commands “And don’t you dare touch my things. It wouldn’t do you any good.” Then he rushes towards the corridor, leaving you behind.

You find yourself a comfortable chair to sit in and think about your situation. It seems quite… unlikely, that Loki would still walk free on Asgard, since the last thing you’ve heard about him is, that he’d escaped the Avengers with the Tesseract and nobody had any idea, where he had run off to. Odin would have locked Loki up, if he had found him, wouldn’t he? After all, his son had tried to take over earth. But you’d guess that isn’t as much of a problem to Odin as it should be to you, is it? Does Odin care about what happens on earth? 

Somehow, you didn’t panic at the sight of Loki, even after you’d realized it was him. Although you had of course seen the news reports and they had scared you at the time. But meeting him here on this beautiful planet just wasn’t scary at all. You hadn’t seen the scary invader of your home, but a handsome, young man. Well, young-looking man. God. For what you knew, Loki was older than a thousand years.

Thinking about the beauty of Asgard, you want to go back to the garden, but you were not eager to defy his orders already. It would be unwise, to walk around on a planet, that was unknown to you, since you did not know the customs of Asgard or if humans were welcomed at all by the majority of the Asgardians. Let alone, what kinds of creatures lived here, which might not be dangerous to the Asgardians, but to you.  
No, you were to stay here and so you would. So instead you stare out the window for quite some time, ducking down whenever guards passed by, which they regularly did. Every thirty minutes they did, you realized after a while. 

Hadn’t you heard about something? Hadn’t Loki already been out of Odin’s favor before he attacked earth? The situation you’ve gotten yourself into seemed worrying the more you thought about it. Considering everything, it was probably the best to try and please the Prince, since he was the one, who knew what was going on and what could be done. And if you’d play nice with him, who knew, you’d might just get to see the royal library. Reading Asgardian books would surely be interesting. Your thoughts about books are interrupted, as Loki returns. Just in time as you were starting to get bored.


	2. The help of a mere human

“I am surprised you actually listened to me and touched none of my stuff”, he smiled at you. You did not reply, hoping he would finally get to the point of at least giving you a hint what was going on. In silence he looked at you, seemed to be thinking about something.

Finally, breaking the silence, he conjured something, a shiny, blue stone. You were so excited about the conjuring-part, that you did not ask about the stone, but smiled at him with amazement.   
“Do you know, what this is, mortal?”, he asked. Shaking your head, you stepped closer to get a better look at the stone, which was hovering in the air. “This is the Tesseract, one of the infinity stones.”   
“The thing you used to mind-control people?”, you asked, taking a step back. “Do not worry, mortal, I have no intentions on using any of my powers against you. If I did, I would have done so already. There are quite nicer ways of toying with your mind, while you are here.” He grinned.

You’d almost rolled your eyes at him for the last sentence, but then you reminded yourself that you didn’t want to anger him, but play nice. “Sooo… What is your plan?”, you finally dared to ask, although you were sure, he would not give you the lengthy answer, you would have liked to hear.   
And you were right. “Having some fun with you, for a start. While, as you must have figured out by now, not being recognized by my family.” You saved yourself the question, why he did not leave. Most likely, he still had some business on Asgard, which he wasn’t going to tell you about and you wondered, if he’d take you with him, when he’d leave or if he would send you home then.

“So what’s with the Tesseract?”, you ask. “I need you to do something for me.”, he answered. You raised an eyebrow. What could he possibly want from you? He, who had seemed to think so low of humans. It was obvious that the god was having trouble with asking you for help. 

You moved closer to him, suppressing the urge to take his hand to comfort him. “Just say it. Asking for help does not make one weak.” He looked you in the eye, about to snap at you.   
But instead of doing so and taking his anger out at you, he pulled himself together and continued. “I need you to take this stone to Midgard, to the Avengers, if my plans fail. You will go to Odin and he will help you to get back to Midgard.”

After hearing his words, it seemed even stranger and you came to the conclusion, that the only reason for him to ask for the help of a mere human, must be belief in the success of his plans. Still, why bother asking, when it had seemed to cost him a lot of effort?

He interrupted your contemplations. “Will you do as I said?” You remained silent, which seemed to anger him. Of course, you didn’t want to anger the god, in case he might lose his temper, but you hoped to get more information by not answering.  
“You don’t get how serious this is, do you?”, he almost shouted at you. “I do”, you said tonelessly, “which is why I’m not agreeing. If you ask a lowly human for help, despite your dislike of my kind and your belief that we are weak, of course it must be serious. Serious for everyone and not just yourself, since you indirectly want the help of the Avengers. But I’m not agreeing, if I don’t have any idea what I’m agreeing to.”

Your words seemed to calm him down. He was thinking. “Smart move”, he admitted. You sat down on his couch, which was of course green, and waited for any further explanation. He seemed unsure about giving you more information. 

“It’s not like I don’t want to help you”, you said. “Is it not?”, he asked “You are willing to help the God of Mischief, who did attack your home planet and did try to enslave your people? You do not believe, that I still want to rule Midgard and what I am asking of you, is part of my cunning plan to become its ruler?”   
You did see his point. Although it wasn’t, why you hadn’t agreed, you hadn’t even thought of this possibility and believed yourself to be so smart. Why would he even suggest that this could be his plan? Wasn’t this sabotaging his own plan to gain your trust? Was he telling you this, thinking that you’d never believe this to be his plan, which was why he could be honest about his intentions?

You looked up at him with a puzzled expression. “You’re confusing”, was all you managed to say. He smiled at you and sat down right next to you. “What else did you expect, human?” You blinked a few times, trying to get your head around what was happening.   
“Confusion will not get me to agree to this plan B of yours”, you declared. “I know, but it’s fun”, he replied smirking at you “I am sure, you will understand soon enough. In the meantime, you should eat. You must be starved after an entire day without any food.”

He conjured a salver filled with many different kinds of nibbles. “I didn’t know, what you’d like, so I got you pretty much everything.” He cleared his throat and smiled at you. There was nothing left in his smile of the intimidating, evil attacker, you had seen on TV. You had not expected him to be this kind to a human, which he so seemed to despise.   
Your expression must have revealed your thoughts, because the god said, “I’m your host after all. And it is unwise to keep you in a bad state, if you are to carry out my as you called it ‘plan B’. Eat, my dear.”

You carefully tried one of the nibbles and it was absolutely delicious. But before you could ask your host about the name of the food, you had just tried, he asked for your name. “You might want to tell me your name – unless of course you like me referring to you as ‘mortal’ and the like.”   
You could not hide your surprise about his sudden change of heart and the return of his manners. “I’m (Y/N).” 

“Well, welcome to Asgard, (Y/N). I could show you around the gardens, if you’d like me to, after you have finished of course. At night there are not as many Einherjar on patrol”, he offered. “I’d love you to, Loki – if I may call you that.” He chuckled. “You may, it would be rather ridiculous, if I had you call me Prince or God, since we will be spending much time together.”

After you finished eating and he had told you all the names of the delicious dishes, he had brought you, you went outside to see the garden. The moon was shining on both of you, which made him look even more mysterious and somewhat sexy. “Does the portal work both ways?”, you asked Loki. “No, I’m afraid it does not, so you’re stuck with me.”, he made an apologetic gesture.   
“Well, it could be worse”, you laughed, “I guess you’re at least interesting company. And you’ve showed me that you can indeed be quite hospitable. Besides, from what I’ve seen Asgard is one of the most beautiful places in the universe.”   
“Is that so?”, he smirked “And how many other realms have you seen, so you’re able to judge?” I looked at the floor in shame and did not reply, since the answer was obvious. “Well… I might show you some of those other beautiful places, once we have achieved our aims.” He looked at the horizon.

All of a sudden, you felt so small and naive, the universe was so huge and unknown to you. Instinctively you moved closer to Loki. You did not reply about him showing you other planets, although you longed to see more beauty after catching a glimpse of it in these gardens. “What are our aims, Loki?”  
“I really don’t want to drag you into this, but I fear that I have to. It would be foolish of me to count on my powers alone. I might not be strong enough to do what needs to be done”, he said, avoiding to look at you. “’Many are the strange chances of the world, and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak, when the wise falter.’”, you replied. 

He gave you a strange look. You would have given a lot to see what was going on in his head right now. “A wise wizard once said that”, you explained. He tilted his head. “What would you know of wizards?”   
You smiled at him. “I just regularly escape my boring life by reading, watching movies, getting sucked into great adventures – although most of the time not literally.”   
He chuckled. “Then I do hope, this lives up to your expectations. Although you might feel a lack of murderous villains and life threatening experiences”, he turned serious again, “I’m actually hoping to keep you away from such during your entire adventure.”

You looked at him silently. He was burdened with something. Clearly, he was not the villain, most humans thought him to be. Or was he? The way he talked to you, seemed so honest and if he was any other being, you would have sworn, that he was telling the truth, that he was good at heart, but you reminded yourself, not to be fooled by the God of Lies. You wouldn’t fall for any of his lies, you told yourself, but deep inside, you already had fallen. Not for his possible lies, but for the god himself.   
He offered you his arm and you silently walked through the garden together until you finally went to bed.


	3. A friend indeed

When you awoke, Loki was already up. He had been very quiet, in order not to wake you, since you slept on his couch and not in his bedroom. He was sitting in a chair next to his desk and reading something. As he noticed, that you were awake, he conjured breakfast.   
Breakfast on Asgard looked alike breakfast on Earth. There were some fruits, different kinds of bread, baked goods and tea. You decided to try a little bit of everything and it was just as delicious as the meal you had the day before.

You thanked Loki and came closer to see what he was reading. This discovery was probably the most surprising of all by now. He was not reading some book in some language you did not know, as you would have expected him to. Instead he was reading Shakespeare.   
You turned around and looked again. Still Shakespeare’s Hamlet. You decided to ignore it, telling yourself that he wasn’t actually reading Hamlet, but only making it seem like he was reading Hamlet to impress you and to show off his knowledge of human stuff.

He put down the book and said, “I have to leave you to yourself again, hopefully I won’t be gone as long as I was yesterday. If you want to, you can read one of these books.” Loki pointed to a pile of books on his desk.   
As he was almost out of the door, he turned around and reminded you, “But don’t touch anything else. No other books, nothing. The last thing I need right now, is you hurting yourself and needing a doctor.” You nodded.

Curiously, you took a closer look at the books on the many shelves. They didn’t look different to any other books. But then again, those were probably magical books, right? So there was danger, but not of the kind, a human would even notice.   
You went to the pile of books and looked at their covers. All of them contained rather famous stories or plays written by humans. Why would Loki have such books? The last book on the pile was Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Had Loki read all these books or did he just possess them? By the way he had looked at you yesterday, he probably had read at least some of them, if not all.   
Carefully, you opened the books one after another and skipped through them. Some of them looked new, like they had never been touched, whereas others were worn. 

At some point, you must have fallen asleep on the couch. You woke up, because someone slammed the door and you fell of the couch in shock.   
Loki looked at you dead serious and put a finger to his lips, telling you to keep quiet. Guards were passing the windows, you couldn’t see them from behind the couch, but you could hear them marching. This was no regular patrol, there were too many footsteps. Something must have happened or was happening right now. 

As soon as the soldiers had passed them, Loki said, “I honestly have no idea what’s happening. All I know is, that there was an attempted break out in the dungeons. But there’s just too many soldiers everywhere for such a minor incident.”  
“That’s not very soothing to hear”, you replied. He truly seemed concerned. “What do we do?”, you asked. “We wait until it is over. I would have stayed and figured out what is happening, but I thought it might be safer for you, if I returned. After all, if I was an escaped prisoner, I’d try hiding in the quarters of the lost Prince. And I surely would murder anyone, who saw me there.”  
“Thank you, Loki”, you said.

It took some time until everything seemed as peaceful as it had been before. A short while after the Einherjar had passed, you could see alien ships flying towards the palace. Loki had explained to you, that enemy ships entering the atmosphere surrounding the palace meant that the shield around them had been destroyed and that this was a lot more serious than it had at first seemed.   
Shortly after you had spotted the alien ships, there was something like an earthquake, but Loki assured you, that there had never been an earthquake on Asgard, so this probably meant also nothing good.

Loki left you alone to find out, what had happened and told you to hide in his wardrobe, if anyone entered his chambers. So you waited for him to return with nothing to do again. Only this time you were worried and impatient.

As Loki came back, you found yourself wishing he hadn’t come back. He just suddenly stood inside of the room and you had no idea how he’d gotten there and he seemed so angry and then he started destroying the furniture.  
Something really bad must have happened, but right now you didn’t care, as long as this furious god didn’t make something really bad happen to you. You ducked down and a wooden chair hit the wall behind you. Carefully you tried to move towards the door, as another chair flew into your direction and you jumped down and rolled under the bed, hoping to be somewhat safe there.

Loki’s rage went on for what felt like ages. You just lied still under the bed and tried not to move, in order not to draw his attention to you.   
After his entire bedroom was chaos and truly everything except for the bed was just tiny pieces of wood or fabric, he leaned onto the wall and it seemed like he was crying. You could not see him, but you could hear it.   
Quietly you crawled out of your hiding place. Wiping your face with your sleeve, you realized that you’d also been crying, crying out of fear, fear to be accidentally killed by a god. You crawled over to Loki, who was sitting on the floor with his back towards you.   
Slowly you moved towards him and hugged him from behind. He looked up with a surprised look on his face. “Y/N. I… I didn’t realize you were there.” His beautiful green eyes were a little red, but there were no tears in them. “What are you doing?” You stopped hugging him and awkwardly sat down next to him. “I’m failing to comfort you, I guess”, you replied. There were tiny pieces of things all over the floor, mostly wood, but also glass and ceramics. A tiny feather from one of the pillows glided down and you watched it, before catching it with your hand.   
“I hurt you, didn’t I?” You looked down at the feather in your hand. It was not entirely white, as you’d expect it to be, but a little red also. You were bleeding. Must’ve cut yourself with one of the shards laying around everywhere. Inspecting your hands further, you noticed that there were also some splinters of wood that had pierced your skin.  
“I’ll be fine. Just need some patches and a pair of tweezers”, you said, still not looking up. He had not harmed you, but you felt different around Loki now, you felt unsafe. 

Loki helped you up and took you to the bathroom. He also avoided eye contact, but apart from that, he treated you just like before, attentive, friendly. You both sat on the edge of his bathtub and he helped you get out the splinters. You didn’t dare to ask, what happened, scared, he might start tearing up the other rooms as well.

“I think my brother recognized me”, Loki revealed his thoughts. “Sooo… we’re in trouble?”, you asked. “Not quite. I do not think, he will tell anyone. Except for his beloved mortal.” “Which means, I’m not the only human on Asgard?” 

Loki sighed. “Listen, I would have liked to give you time to get accustomed to this new situation, to decide, if you wanted this big responsibility, but now things have changed. I need you to promise me right now, that you will take the Tesseract to the Avengers, if anything happens to me.”  
“Wouldn’t it be enough to take it to your brother, if he’s here? Why not take it to him right now?”, you asked in confusion. “This is a lot more complicated and dangerous than I would expect a mortal to understand, just do as I have told you. Promise me”, he looked at you almost pleadingly, but also with a hint of danger hidden in his eyes.  
You felt offended by the way he talked about your species. But looking at him, you decided to overhear it. “Alright, Loki, I’ll do it”, you finally answered, “I promise. Even though I still hate not knowing, what’s going on.”   
“I think that knowing the entire truth might get you in trouble, make this more dangerous for you than it has to be”, he said. Again, he seemed honest, but of course nobody could be sure. 

You sighed and looked out of the window. The sky was darkened by clouds and it looked like a storm was coming. “ ‘ The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.’”, you quoted. “Another one of your wizards?”, he wanted to know, seeming somewhat more curious about the quote than yesterday. You nodded.   
“You do know Midgardian literature. Seemingly not this one, but I think you might like it. It’s really popular, might also become one of the great classics, that will be read for hundreds of years. Maybe I also get to show you some wonderful, new things after everything is over?”, you offered. He chuckled and agreed.   
“Do you watch movies?”   
“I’ve seen a few, while I was on Midgard, but none of them were as interesting as they claimed to be. So I stick to my books”, he replied. “Which ones did you watch?”  
“I don’t even know anymore. I did fall asleep while watching more than once.” You couldn’t help laughing. He smiled at you too. 

The sun had set and it was time to sleep. Only there was just the couch left to sleep on. The bed was still intact, but the remains of the pillows and blankets together with sharp pieces of glass were all over it. But Loki was being a real gentleman, said he didn’t need to sleep and you could have the couch all to yourself. 

You had trouble sleeping. It wasn’t, because the couch was uncomfortable, because it was better than the bed you’d slept in for the last months, but because you were still wondering, what had happened that Loki had been so upset and also sad.   
At some point, you decided to stop rolling from one side and the other, trying to sleep and opened your eyes. You could see Loki sitting in the dark, staring at you with a creepy look on his face. Quickly, you closed your eyes, pretending not to have seen him.   
Slowly you blinked at him. He wasn’t moving. In fact, it seemed as if he was asleep with open eyes. But there was something off about his appearance. You got up to take a closer look and noticed, he wasn’t breathing.   
You reached out to touch his cheek, but you only felt cold air and the illusion faded. Where was Loki? 

You checked the bedroom. Nobody there. You quietly opened the door towards the corridor, nothing to be seen. You glanced into the bathroom and found him.   
He could see you inside of the mirror, not turning around he said, “Go back to sleep, lovely human. You need to rest.”   
As you kept standing in the door, staring at him, he turned around and cupped your face with his hands. “I never thought, I might say this, but the circumstances differ much from anything I could have imagined. I am glad, that you are here. I am glad that you accidentally walked through that portal and ended up here with me. Somehow, you managed to take away my pain for a while. You are a friend, indeed and although I barely know you, I do like you in many ways. Which only makes it worse, that you got dragged into my story. I cannot have you remember my openness towards you. Even if we both stay alive, I’m not good company for you to keep.”   
He kissed your forehead and touched your eyes with his hand. You went back to the couch and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.


	4. Grief

When you woke up, you had a strange feeling. You did not remember, what happened last night, but you felt refreshed and somehow closer to Loki. All of your doubt towards his intentions and his honesty were gone. You found yourself truly believing everything he had said to you, believing in his plan, whatever it was.

You got up and went to the bathroom to enjoy a hot shower. Loki was nowhere to be seen, but a bunch of new clothes were lying near the sink. The sleeves of the shirt were a bit too long and they were clearly Asgardian clothes, but they would do just fine. 

As you wanted to leave the bathroom, you heard voices coming from one of the other rooms. Carefully, you opened the door and peaked outside. One of the voices was Loki’s, so you assumed everything was safe, but you didn’t know, if he’d be alright with other Asgardians seeing you. Even if it were normal for humans to be on Asgard, one might get a wrong idea of your relation towards each other, seeing you come out of his bathroom after a night spent with him in his private chambers. 

You could see a tall man with blonde hair from behind. Could be Thor, at least it would make sense, since Loki had said, Thor might have recognized him. But all Asgardians were tall and probably quite many had blonde hair, so you really couldn’t tell.  
Your eyes searched the room for anyone else, well, not anyone, but specifically the other woman, Thor’s girlfriend. She wasn’t there.   
Loki’s eyes met with yours and he signaled you to come in, so you did. “Erm… hi?”, you said insecurely. 

The tall man turned around and now you could see that it was Thor. He turned around and the look on his face changed. First, he seemed surprised, then confused and then he smiled at you.   
“Hi! I’m so happy that my brother finally met someone! What’s your name?”   
“Uhm… I know what it looks like, but we’re not actually dating or anything… I’m (Y/N)”, you answered awkwardly.   
“Oh, don’t be shy, there’s no reason to hide your relationship. Well, father isn’t really fond of relationships like this, but I’m also dating a human lady”, he said reassuringly. You looked to Loki for help. He seemed amused on the one hand side, but on the other also annoyed. Loki waited for another few moments and then decided to step in.   
“We are not in a relationship, brother. This woman ended up here by accident not long ago. I am not like you, I would not bring mortals to Asgard”, he replied with a sharp tone.  
“I’m sorry, Loki. I did not mean to insult you or upset you”, Thor said and he looked hurt, “I just wanted to believe, you’d finally found someone to be happy with. You deserve it.” You felt sorry for him and gave Loki an angry stare, but he pretended not to notice.  
“Why are you here?”, Loki asked.   
Thor looked up at him and answered, “Loki, I need you. I know that you overheard what happened to mother. I need you to help me. Jane is in danger. Mother died protecting her during the attack yesterday.”  
You couldn’t help, but gasp in shock. That was why Loki had acted like that. You felt incredibly sorry for him and wished you could have done more for him, wished you hadn’t talked about stupid movies and stuff, but actually comforted him.

Now Thor looked at you in surprise, “You haven’t told her? Why didn’t you?” Loki ignored him and continued questioning his brother, “For what do you need my help? You must be truly desperate to come to me. After all, I attacked your precious earth and managed to slip away right under your noses.”  
“Don’t you want to avenge mother?”, Thor asked, seemingly as desperate as his brother had stated.  
Loki did once again not reply. 

You sat down on the couch next to Thor. “I’m sorry for your loss.”  
“It’s fine”, he replied with a faint smile on his face, “I just want to save Jane. She’s sick somehow. There’s like a fluid infinity stone inside of her, using her as a host. That’s what the attack was about.”  
“Please, brother, I beg you”, he pleaded, “I have to save her. If we do not save her, then mother died for nothing.”  
“An infinity stone, you say?”, Loki asked and managed not to sound all too interested. “Yes, Loki. It’s the Aether. The dark elves want it”, Thor replied.

Loki smiled at him. “I will help you”, he said and quickly added, “but only for the memory of our mother. We will avenge her. Together.”  
You weren’t sure, but to you it seemed like he only agreed to help his brother, because of the infinity stone. If you hadn’t known how important these stones were to Loki, you would never have thought that it was about anything else than revenge. 

“Thank you, brother. I’ll explain my plan on the way”, Thor said and walked towards the door. “First, I will need a moment alone with her”, Loki turned his attention to you. Thor nodded and left.

“Now I need you to keep your promise. If I do not come back…”   
“How long will you be gone?”, you interrupted him. “A couple hours, maybe even a whole day, if something goes wrong. It won’t take me much time to get us to Svartalfheim and the elves will probably find us soon, since we have something they want.”  
“Okay, Loki. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my promise. Just please be careful and don’t get yourself killed nonetheless. Maybe you’ll explain everything afterwards…?”  
He shook his head. “This knowledge could get you killed, you know that by now, don’t you? I haven’t even trusted my own brother to know that I’m after the other infinity stone.”  
You knew that you weren’t exactly in the position to argue with him. Well, maybe you were, you could just try to refuse playing backup. But would it be wise? You decided to wait. When they returned, he might have changed his mind after all, or maybe you could tell Thor about Loki’s interest in the stones and he would know some more about it.

“I don’t like that I have to do this, but I have to send you back to Midgard now”, Loki told you. You looked at him with confusion. He summoned the Tesseract and continued. “My brother will not be able to hide the fact that I have helped him, which means I cannot return to Asgard after our quest.”

“Will I not see you again?”, you asked. It felt like a stupid question to ask after you said it out loud. “I will see you again. I will find you on Midgard”, he got a small box out of his pocket, “The Tesseract cannot be summoned in this box, so anyone, who wants it, will have to come personally to get it. It is very important, that you do not take it out of this box. Also, because it might kill you to touch it. It is far too powerful to be held or used by a human. Do not be tempted to try. Understood?”  
Silently, you nodded. Loki put the stone into the box and touched it with a finger. “Now, take my hand and think of your home. A portal to Midgard will open, then you can take the box and leave with it.”  
You took his hand. It felt very warm and it was hard to concentrate on your home while holding hands with him. You kind of… didn’t want him to leave you.   
But eventually, a flow of energy went through your entwined hands and a portal opened. You took the box, smiled at him one last time and stepped through it.

So back at home you were. And suddenly, you felt lonely. You had only been away from your home planet for two nights, but now that you had time to think, you came to realize how much it had changed you. Again, you felt so small and everything around you seemed so unimportant and meaningless. But Loki and the stones – that was important. That meant something. You realized that even if Loki just came back, took the stone and left you to yourself, you couldn’t go back to living your little life.   
You were still young, used to have dreams and hopes. Hopes for a well-paid job after you finished going to university. Dreams of a loving and caring husband. Ordinary dreams and hopes.

Restlessly, you walked around your flat, waiting for Loki’s safe return. You couldn’t stop thinking about him. What you should be thinking of was university. Soon, the semester would be over and you needed to prepare for exams and afterwards you would return home and your exciting semester abroad in the UK would be over. You should be focusing on that, but instead you only thought about Loki and the stones.   
Everything else started to fade into meaninglessness. Yes, your dreams and hopes, your priorities had changed, but you were still you. 

You thought about asking Loki, if you could stay with him or stay on Asgard in general to study Asgardian history. After all, you were a historian. Well, trying to become one at least. You still wanted that. Just not in the way you used to imagine it.   
Now, you were more interested in foreign, in alien culture, language and history. Earth didn’t have to offer that much to you anymore. You could be the first human to learn about Asgardian history, not just Asgardian history, but the history of the other unknown realms as well. You could become an expert at this, the expert at this, make yourself a name.   
But the more you wanted it, the louder the voice inside of you got, saying that Odin doesn’t like humans to be on Asgard and that Loki would think so to, scold you that it’s a foolish idea.


	5. Honesty

Thinking about Loki and your future had made you tired, so you had fallen asleep. You hadn’t even thought about messaging anyone, telling them that you were okay and just needed some time for yourself, preparing for exams and figuring out some stuff. That wouldn’t even have been a lie, because you really needed to figure out what to do.

Someone woke you up by caressing your cheek softly. You opened your eyes and recognized Loki. “Oh my god! You’re back!”, you jumped up and hugged him. Then you realized how awkward your reaction must seem. You weren’t that close. You’d only just met a couple days ago.

Slowly you took a step back and tried to explain with an insecure smile, “I’m just really glad that you’re back…” “I noticed how glad you are”, he replied with a smirk “Now, would you mind telling me, if you have some bandages?”  
Loki seemed unharmed at first glance, but inspecting him closer, you noticed that his armor had been pierced and there was some blood. Not much blood, but in a place where a stab wound should have been fatal.

Quickly you hurried to the bathroom and got him the bandages. “I have no idea what to do!”, you said with a panicked voice. “Do not worry, sweetheart. Just help me put the bandages on and allow me to rest. I heal a lot faster than humans and I will be fine.”  
“How do I get you out of your armor?”, you looked at him, still a little scared. There was a green shimmer and his clothing was gone. “Oh, that’s good”, you said relieved.   
You started bandaging Loki and slowly you calmed down. He wasn’t going to die. At least, that’s what he said. And you believed him, he could still do magic and he could stand up. He just looked really pale and terribly tired and he had some dirt in his hair.   
“Am I doing this right?”, you asked him. You were trying your very best, but you had never bandaged anyone and were unsure if the bandages were tight enough or maybe even too tight and hurting him. “You are doing just fine. Stop worrying”, Loki answered in a commanding tone. 

As you finished, you couldn’t help but notice how muscular he was. Well, you had seen him before or at least an illusion of him, but seeing him up close was a lot better. Let alone touching him a little more than you had needed to.   
You felt dirty for taking advantage of the situation and enjoying it. From the looks of it, Loki was almost killed, being stabbed dangerously close to the heart, so you shouldn’t be thinking about how muscular and sexy he was and how good being near him when he was without clothing felt. 

“You can sleep in my bed, Loki”, you offered him. “No, it is yours, I cannot sleep in your bed. It would be inappropriate”, he politely declined your offer. “I insist. You are wounded and you need rest and my couch isn’t nearly as comfortable as yours is.”   
You walked him to your bedroom and he allowed you to do so much to your surprise. Normally he would have had it his way, it was only due to his exhaustion that he allowed you to do this, you thought.

As soon as he lied down, he fell asleep. You felt sorry for him and you just needed to know more to be able to help him better. Deeply unsure about how to reach this goal, how to finally make him tell you everything about the stones and his plan, you thought about just being brutally honest. Yes, Loki was the God of Lies and Mischief, but maybe that was why maybe he wouldn’t appreciate radical honesty, but at least be irritated by it enough to get some information out of him.

You let Loki sleep and did not wake him up as morning became midday became afternoon. But you held an extensive breakfast ready. A plate filled with pancakes, maple sirup and berries. That was actually what you had planned to feast on during the weekend before you had stepped through a portal that led you to a literal god.

Eventually, he got up and he seemed a lot better. “May I use your shower?”, he asked. Once again, you found his politeness quite irritating. “Why are you this nice to me, Loki? Considering that you tried to conquer this planet, it seems silly to ask if you can shower here. - Of course, you may shower, you are my guest.”   
He laughed at that. You enjoyed this honest laughter, it really suited him better than that grim look on his face he often had. “As soon as you no longer reside in the palace of the man, who calls himself my father, you forget, that I was raised as a Prince, a future king. My manners are therefore excellent.”  
“But you wanted to conquer all humans. Why waste manners on one of my kind?” It was an honest question, you hadn’t thought about it. It just came out of your mouth. Loki didn’t make you feel like you were a nothing to him, not the tiniest bit, but you had thought about what your friends would say, if they knew about this friendly relation to him. They would see him as the evil guy, who was not to be trusted at any point. 

Then it struck you. Suddenly, you remembered something. Something Loki had said to you. “Because you like me, because I am a friend to you”, you said with a husky voice. Loki looked at your face, trying to read you. It explained, why you had trusted him. But, why did you suddenly remember this encounter? 

“Fuck!”, he exclaimed as he understood what had happened. He came towards you, but you stumbled backwards. “No! Don’t you dare touch me, Loki!”, you shouted at him.   
“I cannot allow you to have this memory back, my dear. It pains me, that I have to take it away from you again, but you need to forget that I ever said this. And when I say forget, I do not mean that we just never speak of this again, I mean to take away this memory of yours.”  
“No! I will not let you!”, you ran across your flat, trying to get as much space between you and him as possible. When he had taken your memory away in the bathroom, he had touched you, so you assumed, if you didn’t allow that, you could keep this memory. Keep remembering, that he had told you that he actually thought of you as a real friend and not a toy to get what he wanted. 

This proved your feelings to be right. This was proof that whatever your friends might say about this relation – this friendship – was absolutely wrong. You knew that this wasn’t one of Loki’s lies, because he had taken away your memory to hide it, so it was the truth.  
“I am sorry, believe me, I truly am. I’m trying to do what is best for you”, he came after you. You grabbed a book from the shelf behind you and threw it at him.  
“No, Loki! Not under any circumstances, I will allow you to erase this memory!”, you screamed at him, “Don’t you understand? This changes everything for me! It’s not just that I felt different about you, truly trusted you after you had said it, even if I didn’t even remember. You’ve just shown me an entire, new world. If I am not just a means of getting what you want for you, but a friend, someone you like, someone who seemingly even eased your pain after the loss of your mother without even knowing… I just… I don’t want to go back to my old life, Loki. You’ve shaken up my entire world. I just can’t go back after this, whatever it is, is over. I want to be a permanent part of your life, I want to visit other planets, learn about other cultures and not go back to this pathetic, little life of mine! Knowing that you value me above my existence as some kind of backup… It changes everything for me. Please, don’t take that away from me. Don’t do it, only because you think you’d be bad company or out of belief that humans don’t belong into your world. Please, allow me to stay with you.”

Without realizing, you had gone from shouting at the god to kneeling in front of him, begging him to let you keep holding onto your dreams, which were fueled by the re-gained memory. Maybe, you should have waited for a better opportunity to ask him to allow you to stay a part of his world, but it was too late to unsay your words now.  
Loki looked disarmed. “I cannot promise you anything, my sweet mortal. But I see now, what I have done to you. It was foolish of me to get you into this. Well… at least without knowing the whole truth.”  
Your eyes lightened up.   
He sat down on the couch and pointed next to him. “As much as I like the sight of a woman kneeling before me, you might want to sit down more comfortably.” He smirked at you. You blushed, but then smirked back at him biting your lip. 

“Someone else is trying to collect the stones. I don’t actually have any interest in them, but I cannot allow the other one to have them. He means to wipe out half of all life. I can’t allow that to happen”, he paused, looking into your eyes. “The stones are extremely powerful. Having all of them makes one the master of the universe. Each of the stones symbolize something, the Tesseract for example controls space. And the stone I was given by Thanos, which was inside of the scepter that the Avengers took away from me, is the mind stone. The stone that was inside of Jane, which I intend to collect as soon as I am fully healed, is the reality stone. There are six infinity stones. The whereabouts of the soul stone and the power stone are unknown to me. The time stone is currently on Midgard and there is an order of sorcerers sworn to protect it, but I do not think this will keep Thanos from getting it, if he finds the other stones.”  
“So much for you being the villain, I guess”, you smiled at him. “Compliment me after I succeeded, will you, my darling?”

“Loki… Thank you for letting me keep my memory and for finally filling me in. Can you tell me, why I suddenly remembered? Is everything okay?”  
“I think that either during the fight or while I was sleeping and recovering, my magic must have faded away, rather trying to protect my life than keeping your memory clouded.”, he replied. You started worrying again. “So your life actually was in danger?” “Yes”, Loki said, and after a pause added, “It was so bad, that Thor left me for dead and I would have died, if I didn’t know pretty much every portal in the nine realms and was able to travel to safety quickly.”   
“Oh my… You must get word out to your brother, Loki. You can’t have him believe that you’re dead, because he convinced you to help him!”   
He shook his head. “Whereas I could send my brother a note in secret, I do not trust him to keep this secret. Even if I hadn’t gone with him, it wouldn’t have been long until he told someone of my presence in Asgard. Believe me, it is better this way. Besides… This ‘death’ of mine only plays into my hands. If Thanos thinks that I am dead, he will not look for me to retrieve the Tesseract and kill me for my betrayal.”


	6. Hero or villain?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those of you, who left kudos on my work. I very much appreciate it!  
Feel free to comment your thoughts on the story so far.

After your conversation, Loki had excused himself to finally have that shower. You kept thinking about your rash decision to tell him everything that had been and still was on your mind. At the moment, you barely knew anything about Asgard and the other realms and you started doubting your plan to stay with Loki. You just needed to know more and so decided to just ask Loki as soon as he came back.

Loki came back wearing nothing but a towel. He must have noticed your attraction to him, when you bandaged him and now wanted to tease you a little. But you decided to ignore it. “What can you tell me about Asgard and the other realms? What are the people like? Are they much like humans?” 

“Not all of them. Well, most of them are humanoid, but they have enhanced bodies, so a fragile human like you should be very careful when encountering them. There’s the Svartalfar, for example. Those are the creatures, whom I fought just yesterday. They live on Svartalfheim, a planet that is…”

“Stop. You don’t need to tell me all that, I know the basics. I just want to know about their culture, if it’s like any culture I know, and also how I might fit in somehow”, you tried to explain.

“Well, the Svartalfar are almost extinct, so you needn’t worry about their culture, you will probably never meet one. Jotunns you will probably also never meet, at least if you are lucky. Same thing with the inhabitants of Muspelheim. Dwarves I fear might also be a species that will go extinct, thanks to our dear Thanos. He will visit them sooner or later to have them make a weapon of some kind for him, something that is powerful enough to hold all infinity stones.”  
“Loki, we need to help them!”, you exclaimed. “No. We cannot. We have other battles to fight. We cannot risk to loose time in the race for the stones. Even if we found enough people to fight for the dwarves, by then it might already be too late. And I need to stay undercover, it would be quite unfortunate if anyone recognized me and told Thanos that I am very much alive.”  
“So you will let them die to save your own skin? So he’ll go after someone else and not you? Coward!”, you accused him. “I am not a coward. I simply see the bigger picture. If we find the stones in time, we will be saving a lot more people than some dwarves.”

“So what are we going to do?”  
“Wait until my father has decided where to put the reality stone and then take it. Afterwards we will see what the Avengers have done with the mind stone. In between…”, he started to explain.

“Why don’t you just tell the Avengers the same thing you told me? They might not want to believe you, but at some point they will have to. And they surely will see that the stones should be kept safe somewhere.”  
“They are not going to believe me until the last moment, when they have seen Thanos with their very own eyes and by then it will be too late. Furthermore, I don’t think they can be as secretive as I can. They would tell all the authorities and Thanos would know that someone else is looking for the stones and preparing for battle. He might seek to destroy Midgard right away in order to prevent them from doing so.”  
“Alright. We’re on our own”, you sighed.

“In between, we might visit the keeper of the time stone to make her aware of the threat of Thanos. I suppose I could send you to do it, since it is the easiest task and you seem so eager on helping me as much as possible. I guess you are a little more convincing than I am, because you didn’t try to take over Midgard and you are not known in all the realms for your lies and trickery. She is more likely to believe your warning than mine.”

“Seems like a good plan”, you replied, “There’s just one problem… My old life: I should be preparing for exams right now and afterwards return home from my semester abroad. What am I going to tell my friends, family, professors?”  
“Just tell them that you are seriously sick and not able to take your exams and not in a state where you should be travelling.”  
“They are not going to believe it. My mom might even come here to take care of me. It’s not going to work.”

“Well…”, Loki bit his lip, thinking about something, “What if… You were missing? Your entire flat a huge mess and no sign of you anywhere?”  
“And where would we be staying then? I would have expected something cleverer of you”, you sounded a little disappointed.  
“Oh, my dear, we don’t need another place to stay. We will have to make a mess, maybe even spill some of your blood here to make it seem real, but after the police has left, we will come back here in disguise and stay here. Doesn’t that sound like a solution?”, he smiled at you.  
“Wow, you’re really enjoying this, aren’t you? Causing some mischief and making it seem like something that isn’t true was reality. Yes, it sounds good to me – except for the blood part and some strangers looking into my stuff. But I guess, I’ll need to make some sacrifices for this to work.”

You tried not to look too unhappy. But seemingly you failed, because Loki smiled at you and said, “You know, we don’t have to do it right away. We can still enjoy the rest of the day. There is no hurry, is there?”  
“Thanks, Loki. You know… You’re actually a really kind and empathetic person.”  
“You don’t mean that. You barely know me. I am a cruel person, a monster”, he replied.  
“Can’t you just accept a compliment for once? I don’t think, you’re a bad person. It’s just not you. You do care and you don’t actually want to hurt people. You’re just not as open about caring as for example your brother is. Which is why you didn’t tell me about your mother. You cared about her, more than anyone else, I think. And you also care about the universe you’re trying to save. And you don’t even make a fuss about it, but instead hide it. You take the shit and allow everyone to hate you, despite being some version of a hero. That’s noble.”

The look on his face changed. He stood up, now towering over you. “You’re only telling yourself, I wasn’t a villain, but a hero, so you don’t have to feel bad for being attracted to me. Don’t you think I noticed the way you look at me, little mortal? Not just as we first met, you devoured me with your eyes, but also several times after you knew, who I was. It is so obvious how much you want me, almost disgusting. The only reason, why you want to stay with me, is because you hope, that I will fuck you. ”  
He almost spit out the last words, then paused for a moment. You couldn’t think of anything to shoot back at him. You were startled. That was completely unexpected. Although he didn’t shout at you, he had raised his voice a little and that together with his height was enough for you to be shut up.

“I am no hero. I am a villain, a murderer and a monster”, he said and there was this green flicker again. For nothing more than an instant, he turned blue with dangerously red eyes. You had no idea what you had just witnessed. “I have killed countless people. And most of the times I have killed, it was not to save some mortal threatened by Svartalfar, but killing innocents. Innocent people like you, who had no means of protecting themselves. How foolish of you to trust the man, who tried to conquer your precious Earth and subjugate your entire race.” Wickedly he smiled at you.

He looked evil. He looked like he would kill you, if you made a wrong move. But you just couldn’t forget his words. They echoed inside of your head ‘You are a friend, indeed and although I barely know you, I do like you in many ways.’ He couldn’t scare you. Because you knew, he wouldn’t hurt you. 

You stood up and your eyes met his. “You are only trying to push me away to protect me. You are hurting me to make me leave, so I don’t get physically hurt. Because you don’t think a lowly human can survive in your world”, you finally shot back with a steady voice, “Well, guess what: I’m not leaving. So stop being an asshole.”  
You turned around, wanting to leave him, cry a bit on your own. Because he had managed to hurt your feelings. More than you would like to admit. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to stop you.

You hurried to your bedroom, tears already starting to flow down your cheeks. Then you slammed the door with a bang and locked it. Curling up in your bed under your blanket, you started crying hysterically. You had not the slightest idea about why his words had hurt you this much.  
Well, you said it yourself: He had shaken up your entire world. And it did feel like there was nothing here for you anymore. Otherwise, you never would have dared to even think about lying to everyone you knew and hurt them by making them believe you had been abducted and maybe even killed.  
So of course it hurt a lot more, to hear these words from the only connection to the world you so desperately wanted to become a part of. 

Loki made you feel even more insignificant than before. Like you were not just another unimportant human, he could easily kill, whenever he felt like it, but also a whore trying to get him to have sex with her.  
Had you really acted like that? Was it that obvious? You yourself hadn’t even consciously felt that attracted to him. Yes, that man looked like the god he was. Just absolutely perfect and delicious and you had admired his body more than just once. But you never had any thoughts about having sex with him. 

You stuck your hand out from under the blanket to get a tissue, when you noticed how much the blanket smelled of him. It was intoxicating. Angrily, you pushed the blanket away.  
Next, you heard a knock on your door. “No! Fuck you, Loki!”, you screamed. An illusion of him appeared next to your bed. You threw a pillow at it, “Get out! Can’t you just leave me alone?!”

“No, I cannot. Because you are right and I do care. Not only about my mother and the universe. I care about you. And that’s exactly why I tried to drive you away. I may be the villain in some people’s story, but I won’t be in yours, I promise. I just like you so much. You’re not just some dumb human, who knows nothing about anything. You’re a smart girl and I enjoy spending time with you. I would like to get to know you better and how much I would like to have you around longer than needed…”  
He paused again and sighed, then chuckled. “I’m starting to believe whenever I tell you, something could get you killed, you insist on getting caught up in it deeper. But I think I have made myself quite clear now. The universe is a dangerous place and you humans do better, staying on Midgard with your people. If you still wish to turn your back on Midgard, then feel free to do so.”

You looked at him, still not entirely convinced. “One more thing…”, he said straight looking at you, “I don’t think you only want to stay, because you crave for me to fuck you. And I must admit, I also find you attractive.”


	7. Abduction

You kept lying in bed for a while. Would you have sex with Loki, if there was an opportunity? It seemed like a strange question to ask yourself. It had been quite a while, since you had been with someone. You had been busy studying and hadn’t really cared about dating or sex for about a year. Your libido had almost disappeared. So naturally, you hadn’t thought of having sex with Loki until now. And you quickly turned away from these thoughts even now. It would only make things more complicated.

Eventually, you unlocked the door and left your room, only to find that Loki was making you food. Or rather trying to make you food. He wasn’t that good at cooking, so you tried to help him, but he refused to let you and told you to sit down on the couch, watch TV or read a book. He said, he owed you and wanted to make it up to you.

A little later, he presented you with some spaghetti. They were better than you had expected them to be and you wondered, if he had used a little magic to make up for his missing cooking skills. “Loki? Do you want to watch ‘Harry Potter’ with me?”, you asked him. “Sure. What is it about?”

“It’s about a boy, who lived in a cupboard under the stairs with his relatives, who don’t like him and then figures out that he’s a wizard and goes to a school for magical kids.”  
“Sounds… interesting. Is this the one, you quoted a couple of days ago?”  
“It is. I must say, I’m a little excited what an actual wizard will have to say about it”, you laughed. “I wouldn’t call myself a wizard, but I am curious about what humans imagine magic to be like.” 

You watched the movie in silence. Luckily, Loki wasn’t one of those people who would comment every scene and then miss the most important things and you were also holding back with your commentary and simply watching his reactions.  
After the movie, Loki concluded, “I think magic is displayed quite realistically in this movie. But I do think, it’s really weird that they need wands. And constantly using verbal spells is truly annoying. I get that they are only students, but still…”  
You smiled at him. “So… you like it? Wanna watch the following movies some time?”  
“There’s more Harry Potter movies?”, Loki asked with excitement written on his face. 

After you cleaned up the popcorn bowls, you turned serious again. “Loki, may I ask you something?” You couldn’t hide your insecurity. He simply nodded and looked at you with interest. He already seemed to know you were not going to ask about cultures or anything similar, but it was going to be something that concerned you even more.

“How did you know?”  
“How did I know what?”, he grinned at you. “Oh, come on! You know exactly what I’m asking about! Don’t make me say it”, you pleaded.  
His grin widened. “I do. How could I not? Still, you will not get an answer, if you do not ask explicitly.”  
“How did you know how much I am attracted to you? I didn’t even know it myself.”  
“Alright, I’ll let that pass as explicitly. Just this once”, he explained, “It is obvious to me, although I must say in your defence, I don’t think many other people would have noticed. Of course, they would have noticed the way you looked at me, that clearly showed that you think I am attractive. But they would never have noticed that you want more than just to look at me, admiring my body once in a while. It’s hidden in the way you smell, the way you talk and the way you act. Your smell changes just a tiny bit when you are talking to me, when you are at ease and I am not scaring or hurting you. Moreover, your voice sounds only a little different, a little more erotic one might say, when you are talking to me, as I came to notice when you were talking to my brother. Also, you act differently when I am present and you know I am watching. You move your hips more and you always face me and I can see that I have your full attention.”

You gulped and looked at him with surprise. He could read you more easily than any book. He smiled at you. “Do not be ashamed of your body showing me all of your true feelings, little girl. You just couldn’t consciously admit to those feelings, because of who I am, could you?”  
You blushed. “I never thought myself to be a person, who is afraid to admit having feelings for a bad boy”, you laughed nervously. “Maybe it’s just because it’s been quite a while, since I last felt… attracted to anyone.”

“You should go to bed, get some sleep. Tomorrow we might have some time to get to know each other better”, he suddenly said. You felt rejected immediately. Even though you had decided, even if he made any moves, you would not sleep with him, you were undeniably disappointed. But you didn’t say anything and simply wished him a good night.

As you left your bedroom, you found Loki browsing through your books. “Let me guess, you’re a history student”, he said without looking at you. “You’re right. I guess my history books gave me away.”  
“I like that. Especially since as far as I know, career chances are a lot better for people who study natural sciences rather than human sciences. You must therefore truly love your subject and are not doing it simply to get a secure, well-paid job.”

“When are we going to fake my abduction?”, you asked. “Whenever you are ready”, Loki smiled at you, “Don’t worry about your things. I can repair them for you later, when we can be sure that the police will not come back to the crime scene.”  
“Oh, that’s nice”, your mood lightened up a little, “We can start now. Get it over with as quickly as possible.”  
“Alright. Can you scream really loud, when we are almost finished? If we want the police to come over, we need the neighbors to become suspicious.”  
“I guess I can. Although it’ll feel weird. Where do we start? Are we going to leave any room untouched?”  
“If you want to, we can leave out the bedroom. In the middle of the day it is a lot more likely that whoever breaks in, will find you in the living room or the kitchen. Maybe we can make it seem like the intruder came in through the front door and surprised you while you were cooking. Then injured you with a kitchen knife and dragged you out the same way he came in”, Loki suggested, “But in order to make the case more difficult, I think we should also make a mess out of the living room, especially your desk and the books, make it seem like he was looking for something.”  
“Okay. That’s a solid plan. Let’s start.”

You started to rip out pages out of your books. “This feels terrible, Loki. I hate having to destroy my things. Weird, isn’t it? I do want to leave my old life behind, but I still want to keep all my stuff.”  
“Don’t feel bad, little girl, I will fix everything later”, Loki said and touched your cheek almost incidentally.  
Loki threw the cushions off the couch and destroyed one of them with a knife he conjured.  
Soon you were ready to move on to the kitchen.

You started making bacon and fried eggs. Loki shattered one of your plates.  
“Do we have to use my blood?”, you asked Loki insecurely. “You can believe me, when I say that I will not enjoy seeing you hurt like that, but I deem it necessary to make everything as realistic as possible. Of course, you still do have a choice to turn back, start studying for your exams and I’ll make sure not to trouble you that much with saving the universe.”  
“No!”, you said, “I won’t turn back. But… can you please do it? I just can’t cut myself. I’d probably mess it up.”  
Loki smiled down on you. “Then I will do it. Just relax as much as possible, do not panic and do as I say. Remember: I am not doing this to harm you.”

The god sliced up your wrist with his knife and pulled you close to him. The blood spilled onto the floor, then he proceeded to drag you to the door of your flat, making sure to leave a trace of blood behind. He opened the door, closed it and then opened it with force from the outside.  
“Scream”, he commanded you. At this point, screaming didn’t feel that weird anymore. His grip was tight and you were actually a little scared, even though you had consented to this and planned it together. So you started screaming at the top of your lungs for help. 

Loki put his hand above your mouth to silence you and you got lost in the moment, panic arose inside of you and your heart started beating faster.  
“I can hear the neighbors and I’m sure that they have heard your screams. You did very well and can stop now. Everything’s fine. You are not in danger”, Loki calmed you and continued to drag you down the stairs, leaving a thin trail of blood behind. His smell calmed you and so did his voice. Your heart rate slowly went back to normal.

As soon as you were outside, he transformed both of you into people unknown to you. He still held you close to him and hastily put some bandages on your wound, made sure the trail would end here. You hadn’t even thought about that yourself. He also kept an eye out for anyone who might see you leave the house. The god of mischief sure was a good partner to fake an abduction with or pretty much anything else one could think of.

He dragged you to the next bus station. You waited for barely a minute. It seemed like Loki had thought about everything. Perfect timing even. You felt exhausted, although you hadn’t lost that much blood, which was probably another thing Loki had made sure of. It was good that you could hold onto him and needn’t worry about where to go now. He was taking care of you.  
“Don’t worry, as soon as were there, I can heal your wound. You will be perfectly fine”, he assured you. 

You got off the bus after only a few stops. Loki took you inside a small bar. The waitress came and he ordered a drink for himself and some water and a salad for you. You had a place at the back of the bar, next to the toilets. There were almost no other customers, which wasn’t surprising as it was still very early.

As soon as the waitress had brought you your drinks, Loki took your hands into his. You felt warmth creeping into you, wandering into your wrist. It tickled a little.  
Slowly, Loki took off the bandage and revealed your completely healed arm, there wasn’t even a scar left of the injury. “Tada”, he said and gave you a heart-warming smile, “Now be a good girl and go to the bathroom, flush it down the toilet. But don’t let anyone see.”  
You nodded and complied.

As you came back, you asked him, how he would know when the police left. “Oh, I have my ways of finding out what I need to know”, he answered mysteriously. You rolled your eyes at that.  
“I suggest we use the time we have together to get to know each other better”, he said. “Oh, sure, like you hadn’t just proven yesterday that you already know me better than I know myself”, you snapped at him.  
“Please. Let us leave that behind us”, he bid you, “I did not hurt you for my pleasure.”  
“What else do you presume to know?”, you were curious.  
“I know just enough to trust you for now.”  
“That is not an answer”, you decided, your curiosity unsatisfied. Then another thought crossed your mind. Previously, you had been too busy to think about it, but now that you had time to question Loki…  
“What happened yesterday?”  
“What are you referring to?”  
“When you tried to intimidate me, talked about the people you have killed, told me you were a monster… Something happened that moment. I can’t exactly say what it was, but I know that I saw something. The usual green flicker of your magic and then…”


	8. Peppermint

“Let us not talk about that now. The police has just finished taking a look at the crime scene and left your flat”, he interrupted you.   
Loki just got up, paid for your drinks and food and left the bar. Confused, you stood up and followed him. You must have hit a soft spot there. There was no reason for you to hurry back home and drop the topic of conversation.

You took the bus back home. Both of you were still in disguise as you entered the house. Still, Loki made sure, no one saw you enter.   
Someone had already cleaned your blood off the stairs, although it hadn’t even been half an hour since Loki had proclaimed that the police had left. The blood must have been an unwanted reminder of a disturbance of these ordinary, decent people’s little lives and was therefore removed as quickly as possible. It made you wonder, how long it would take for everyone to forget you, the neighbors had already wiped away everything that might remind them of you. There was only a tape that said ‘crime scene – do not enter’ left on your door. Soon the friends you had made here would forget you and your friends at home would too, if they hadn’t already.   
You were being sentimental, but you couldn’t help it. Not after Loki had pushed you away from him by refusing to answer your question. You wondered what you’d gotten yourself into, if it had been the right decision to leave everything you knew behind, just because you accidentally stumbled upon a magical pathway that had led you to a literal god. What good was it, if said god couldn’t be at least a little open with you?

Loki noticed your silence, as you walked through the remains of your living room. “What’s on your mind, little one?” You looked up at him. “I’m just wondering, if I made a mistake with… this.” You pointed to your surroundings. “You can still go back. Tell them some horrifying story about how I kidnapped you and you escaped. They will believe you”, Loki said with a hint of anger in his voice.  
“You know, I wouldn’t do that. It’s just that…”  
“That you cannot handle me being secretive and being allowed no secrets yourself?”  
“When you say it like that, it sounds stupid”, you replied, “But yes, that’s about it. Why don’t you ever tell me anything about yourself? I don’t even know you, yet I rely on you to build a new life.”  
“Oh, I did tell you things about myself. Just not what you wanted to know”, he smiled.

“Come”, Loki said and took your hand in his, “Let us not stay in this mess. You still do have a lovely bedroom, little girl. I will repair your other rooms, as promised, but it is too soon. The police might still come back. But do not worry, if necessary I can make us disappear for a while.”  
“Can you please stop calling me little girl, Loki? I am an adult woman”, you asked and followed him to your bedroom. “To me, you are a little girl.”  
“What’s that supposed to mean? I find it rather demeaning to be called a little girl”, you argued.  
“It simply means that I do not consider you my equal. You might be an adult woman in the eyes of your people, but as I am over a thousand years old, you are nothing more but an inexperienced little girl to me.”  
“Which is why I want you to stop calling me that”, you said in an angry tone, “You did stop calling me mortal, why call me other names that show how lowly you think of me?”  
“I do think highly of you, do not mistake my nicknames for you as insults”, Loki replied, “And please do remember your manners, this is no way you should speak to a noble god, little girl.” He touched your cheek and raised your chin carefully, so you were forced to look into his eyes.  
One moment, you wanted to slap him in the face, the other, you wanted him to slap yours for being rude. Looking into his wonderfully green eyes calmed you. “I am sorry, Loki. I just don’t know you good enough, to know what you mean by what you say.”

“I might grant you some questions, I will answer honestly, little one. Maybe then you’ll be a good girl and trust me, not doubting your choices”  
“How many?”, you asked. “Let’s say three and you will forget about the thing you asked in the bar. Alright?”  
“Alright”, you sat down on your bed and started to think really hard. The first question was an easy one.  
“What do you want, Loki?”  
“Quite many things actually. From the first moment I saw you, peaking at me, you dirty little girl, I wanted you to kneel before me and suck my cock, I wanted to bury myself in your sweet little cunt until you scream my name in pleasure”, he smirked at you, “Also, I have always wanted to be a king, to rule. And I want to stop Thanos, so there will still be people left to rule.”

You blushed, because you hadn’t expected him to say such things to you. Not knowing what to say, you quickly turned to the next question and pretended to not have heard that first part.   
“What do you fear – apart from death or not being able to stop Thanos?”  
“Oh, I do not fear death. But I do fear not being good enough, not being worthy enough, continuing to be overshadowed by my brother.”

“Interesting. Thank you, Loki. I really want to ask about your relationship with your family right now, but I think I will ask my last question later. If I ask now, I might waste it”, you said. “Wise choice, little one”, was his comment.   
Loki was laying on your bed, looking like he owned the place and you were standing around like some idiot. Awkwardly you sat down on the bed. “What are we going to do now?”  
“Since I already know what you want, you could tell me about your fears”, he tried to look innocent and not that interested, but then gave you an evil grin. “Nope. That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. How about we read something instead? There’s still some books we haven’t destroyed.” You pointed towards your nightstand.   
Loki leaned over to take a look at the books on your nightstand. “I must admit I don’t really share your interest in midgardian history. You are far more interesting, little one.”  
The way he looked at you made you blush. He seemed like a predator watching his prey. Loki gestured for you to lay beside him and you moved over to him. 

“I, my sweet little girl, have a feeling”, he whispered and was suddenly on top of you, his face so close that your lips almost touched, “that there is more to you than meets the eye.”  
He touched your cheek and looked deep into your eyes. His hand went to your neck to caress it. You were lost in his beautiful green eyes. 

Suddenly his hand was over your mouth and nose. You couldn’t breathe. Your eyes widened in shock and fear. His other hand found its way under your shirt and started to caress your breasts. You kept staring into his eyes. His lips formed into a wolfish smile.  
His actions sparked something deep inside of you. You were sure he was not going to kill you, you trusted him. You had known that he was powerful and that he could have killed you at any time, if he had wanted to. He simply knew. How long had he known?   
You couldn’t think about it, you couldn’t think of anything right now. You needed to breathe. Trust turned into fear within seconds. You raised your hands and tried to push his way. It didn’t move the slightest bit. You could see the joy in his eyes.  
He chuckled at your attempt to move his hand. “You look incredible when you are scared.” His hand moved down from your breasts to your thighs and caressed those too.  
By now, you were moving around uncontrollably in panic, still you tried to move his hand away with all the little strength you had left. Still, it did not move.  
You thought you would lose conscience at any moment, when he pinched your thigh and finally let go.

You gasped for air. He smiled at you and put his lips on yours. It was a passionate kiss that you returned. His tongue invaded your mouth and played with your own. He tasted of peppermint. As he parted from you, he said, “I was right then. You are special in yet another way. Almost as if you were made to be at my side.”

“So this was obvious too then?”, you asked him. “Well, no, actually. But I was willing to take a risk with that”, he said, still eyeing you, “I just had to know. Since I already figured out that you craved me, I just had to know, if we would be… compatible.”  
“And that was reason enough to… I don’t know what to call this”, you looked at him like he had lost his mind.  
“I already had some suspicions I must say in my defense. The way you always do everything I tell you to – unless of course, you are entirely unaware of the consequences. You are such an obedient one, but without being foolish. And you do not obey me, because you simply fear me. Pretty rare quality in a submissive – at least for what I can say. I like it”, he explained, “And then, you didn’t say anything when I suggested for you to be a good girl and get rid of the bandages. Which of course could have been due to the shock after our little fake abduction. But after the way you reacted to me calling you a little girl… You just immediately submit to me, after I reminded you of your manners.”

“Pretending to try to kill her is no way of treating a little girl, is it? What if you had been wrong? Have you ever thought about that?”, you were angry at him. Still aroused and secretly wanting more kisses, but also angry. It would have destroyed everything, if he had been wrong.  
“But I was not. I do not regret it. Even if I had been wrong, I could have erased your memory”, Loki said with a confident look on his face, “Maybe it was a rash decision, but you rudely didn’t react to my comment about you kneeling before me, so I had to figure it out in some other way.”  
“And you didn’t think this might be a bit much?”, you still couldn’t believe that he had actually done this.  
“It was. I am the kind of guy, who likes ‘a bit much’”, he grinned at you cruelly, “I lied to you earlier. I really did enjoy slicing you up and watching you bleed as I held you in my arms helplessly. I don’t think this was necessary at all, it sure made everything more realistic, but they would have bought the story without it.”

You wanted to say something. You wanted to shout at him that he was a psycho and that you didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. But that would have been a lie.   
You were now fully aware of how much you truly did crave for this god to fuck you. These few seconds had sparked something inside of you. You hadn’t felt like this for a long time, at some point you had even thought that your submissive side had just vanished. But here it was, stronger than ever. He was the one you needed. He was the one, who would be able to give you everything you had ever wished for.

“Speechless, are we now?”, he chuckled, “You don’t even think it was too much. It was just about right for you. Oh, we are going to have so much fun together, or at least I will have a lot of fun with you.”


	9. The Ancient One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter! I'm sorry it took so long. I guess I won't be able to update every week from now on. 
> 
> Have fun reading!

“Well, sadly I must tell you, that fun will need to wait. We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow and therefore should both get some rest. I expect by now you will not mind sharing the bed with me. You would do so soon enough either way.” He smiled at you dirtily and then got up. “Today, I shall allow you to rest in your nightgown, but do know that I’d prefer you slept naked.”

Loki walked out of your bedroom and left you baffled. It was incredibly weird how he just took on this position naturally. You realized that you both did, as you changed into your nightwear.   
He took the lead and you followed. Almost as if it was some kind of dance, luckily you did know the steps and would not stumble while spinning around entwined with a master of dance.

You slept wonderfully that night. It felt nice to share your bed with someone once again, you had missed waking up next to someone. You had been lonely. Although you weren’t lonely anymore, you still felt that you weren’t as close to Loki as you would like to be.   
It was amazing to be this close to him, to smell him, his sweet leathery scent, but you were only close to him physically and not emotionally. But it had gotten better, since he allowed you to ask him about himself.

Loki took you to eat breakfast in a small Café not far away from your flat. While you were enjoying your scrambled eggs with sausages, he didn’t eat anything. He seemed impatient, constantly moving. He explained to you what was going to happen today.   
“I will use the Tesseract to send you to New York, where the keeper of the time stone resides. And while you have a nice chat with her, I will go and get the reality stone. I will not tell you where it is, but do know, that I think Thanos might also know its current residence. Those fools have already been to open about it.” He looked at you. “How can anyone take so much time to eat?”, he said, as you swallowed the last bit of food. 

Before you could say anything in your defense, he got up and paid. You hurried and tried to keep up with him. “Why did you pay? You didn’t even order anything. I can pay for my own food.”  
“If you’d like to keep up this illusion of independence, we can discuss this issue later. As you might have noticed, we do not have time for such nonsense at the moment”, said he and pushed you into a dark alley.   
He opened up a portal, “Now go, I’ll pick you up later. If anything goes wrong, stay with the Ancient One, you will be somewhat safe there.”  
As the tone of his voice assured you, that he was in absolutely no mood for any more delay, you stayed silent and stepped through the portal.

You appeared in front of a big house. Insecurely, you stepped forward and rang the doorbell. It took some time and you were already wondering, if maybe nobody was home, but then a man opened the door. He was wearing a robe that looked like it was from another time.  
“Uhm, hi. I need to talk to …the Ancient One?” It was more a question than a statement. “Yes, you are at the right address”, the man assured you, “She’ll be with you in a moment.”

You were confused, because he didn’t ask who you were or what you wanted, almost like he already knew. But what would be the point of going here, when these strange protectors of the time stone knew about Thanos?

You didn’t have enough time to think about it, because a woman greeted you. She seemed like the most unusual and at the same time not noticeable person you had ever met. She was bald and it was extremely hard to guess how old she was. But if she was the ‘Ancient One’ she must be extremely old. You wondered, if she was as old as Loki.   
You hoped that he would be fine. You hadn’t wanted to make him mad or increase the riskiness of his plan by eating breakfast in your usual pace. If he had simply told you before, that it would be good to hurry up a bit, you might have even skipped breakfast. You knew that you would never forgive yourself, if he got captured by Thanos, because you ate breakfast in peace.

“You look troubled. How can I help you?”, the woman asked. “Are you the Ancient One?”, you asked. “I am. I knew that you would come to visit, but I do not know what this meeting is about.”  
“I’m sorry, but can you somehow prove that you are truly the Ancient One, the keeper of the time stone?”, you asked. You didn’t wanna mess this up by giving the wrong person information. And know that you had spent enough time with the master of illusion and trickery himself, you knew that you needed some kind of proof. 

She opened up the medallion she wore around her neck and showed you a small green stone. You realized how little you knew, how little Loki had told you. You didn’t know anything about this Ancient one or about the stones. This could be an illusion, the real stone could be a pink stone and could be hidden elsewhere. 

So you decided to test her further. “You knew I would come? What do you know about me?”   
“I know that you are Y/N, that you currently should be on another continent studying at university. But you have been reported missing yesterday. Yet, nobody stopped you at any airport or informed the police that you are not missing. Which means you did not come here on your own, someone is helping you. Someone has ordered you to talk to me.”  
That was somewhat impressive and convinced you that the really was the Ancient One. 

“Well, as you probably know, there are several powerful stones. And currently, there’s someone searching for the stones. His name is Thanos and he wants to use them to wipe out half of all life, not just on earth, but on every planet in the universe.”, you paused for a moment to let that sink in and then continued, “I do not know how many stones he has or if he has any at all. But you must protect the stone at all costs. You need to prepare. At the moment, he is busy, searching for the other stones, but it will not take much time until he comes to try and take this stone. I guess I would say, you should start preparing for war immediately.”  
If even Loki saw this Thanos as a very serious threat, then war was probably a good term. People even said, Loki would wage war over earth, trying to take over. What would someone like Thanos do to achieve his aim? How many more lives would be lost?

“How did you get this information? Who sent you, if I may ask. Do not get me wrong, I do believe you. But I am curious, as I have not forseen any of this.”  
“Oh, I’m not going to tell you. He made very sure, that I understand how important it is, only to give away the necessary information and how dangerous it can be to say even a single word more than needed”, you explained.   
You did want to tell her, to talk to someone about everything that was happening. Maybe exploring, if you were simply bewitched by this God or if he was truly trustworthy and even an outsider would see it that way. But you were absolutely sure, that Loki would punish you severely, if you told her anything more than necessary.

“Alright, I see. It was probably always just a matter of time, until someone would come not only for one of the stones, but for all of them. I will prepare for war. Until now, we have always been successful at defending the stone, but I honestly do not know, if we can keep it safe from someone, who has already acquired other stones”, she explained, “You do know about the other stones, I can see it in your eyes. Are you willing to tell me about them? Do you need help with the protection of the other stones?”  
You silently cursed Loki for not telling you what to do explicitly. “Secrecy is the best protection the stones currently have. Those who are lost somewhere in the universe and those who have already been found”, you kept your answer as vague as possible.  
“A wise choice. Whoever has sent you must have great trust in you to burden you with this information”, she said. “I guess so”, you replied shyly, “After all, who would suspect a mere human to have such information?” At least she did think too, that keeping as much as possible a secret was a good thing to do. Her opinion made you feel more secure about Loki’s plan.

“Do you want me to send you home? I can make a portal, if you want me to”, she asked you, as you had finished business talk.   
“Erm, no, thank you. I’ll be taken home soon”, you replied. Again, you cursed Loki for being so unprecise. What the hell did ‘I’ll pick you up later’ mean?  
You said goodbye to the Ancient One and wandered the streets, making sure you didn’t go that far from her house, but also were not to be seen from the windows. 

Suddenly, you felt a hand grab you around your waist. You protested, but the grip only got tighter. You turned your head around and saw a man, unknown to you. Then everything got black.


	10. Old friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii,  
new chapter! I must say I am especially excited to post this one, because I've experimented a little...
> 
> I think most of the fanfictions here are focussing way to much on America(n readers). And often the reader is... Well, if you think about it for too long actually not a good match for Loki, who is incredibly smart and has had a literal thousand years to learn stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, there are storys that are a lot better than mine working this way and in the story itself, it does make sense. I just want to do it differently, because I am convinced Loki wouldn't put up with someone, who never made it past what is called "high school".
> 
> I'll be adding some parts in languages other than English to highlight Loki's view on the reader and the reader's skills a bit. If you want me to, I will add translations in the notes at the end, but I would suggest to read the chapter first without translations to get into Loki's head a little better.  
Have fun dealing with my germanness! :P

You were only out for a moment. Not realizing that you were in the small backyard of the house you lived in, you hit the man as hard as you can the second he let go of you.

“Aren’t you a fierce one?”, he chuckles, completely unaffected by your hit and his physical form transforms to one you know quite well by now. It is Loki. Of course. You should have guessed – but then again, who takes time to think about it, when just being grabbed and forcefully taken somewhere. You take a second to look around and recognize the place.

“Couldn’t you just warn me before grabbing me looking like a stranger and taking me somewhere?”, you exclaim. “Where would be the fun in that”, he grins at you. You roll your eyes at him. “It’s rude! You can’t just make me believe I’m being kidnapped. Especially not when I do know that I actually am in danger of being kidnapped and tortured or killed.” 

His expression softens. “Please, do forgive me. I just had to take my chances. Whereas I might go too far with my jokes, you must know that you shall always be safe with me.” You pout a little, but stop as soon as he kisses your lips. It’s extremely sweet, a lot softer than when he kissed you the day before. 

“It’s good to know that you will defend yourself in case of an attack though. Surely that punch would have stopped any human attacker”, he says. You’re not sure, if he’s actually complimenting you or making fun of you. It’s not like you’ve ever had any kind of self defense training.

“Sooo… Everything went well with you, I guess? No surprises? Thanos knowing its residence was a false alarm?”, you ask, changing the topic. “Well, not quite. But he obviously didn’t know that anyone else might be looking for the stones and only sent in a couple of his men. I could take them out easily, didn’t even need to kill anyone.” He looks at you as if he was expecting some kind of praise. “I simply changed their memories and made them believe their information of the stones residence was wrong. So it will take some time to realize that someone else is collecting infinity stones”, he continues and looks quite pleased with himself.

“And how did your mission go? All good I expect?” “Yeah, I think so. It was weird, but I think she got the message. Although I was being very vague. I just didn’t know how much I could tell her. You really need to fill me in more, if you want me to help you as best as I can”, you look up to him. “I expected you to do the right thing instinctively and you have not disappointed me. You’re a good girl”, he smiles down on you and caresses your scalp.

“How do you know that? I didn’t tell you the details.” Again, he chuckles. “I took the liberty of looking into your mind while teleporting us back here.” You look at him stunned. “I would very much like you to not invade my privacy”, you reply instead of shouting at him. It seems like the best strategy to you and you really are curious about how he can look into people’s minds and what he can actually see while doing so. “Duly noted. But I must say, you will give up this illusion of privacy, as soon as you fully submit yourself to me.”

Loki checks, if anyone is near the house and you both go in using the back entrance. But before you enter your flat, he suddenly stops you. “Someone was in here”, he says.  
You look at him with confusion. “How can you tell?” You didn’t notice anything unusual, the door seems closed and there still is the crime scene sign. “The sign is not where we left it”, is his answer. 

“Well, maybe one of the neighbors just ripped it, tried to clean it. It’s ugly as hell.” You can’t think of anyone who might be here and Loki had just told you that Thanos had no idea that anyone was looking for his precious stones, least of all a human and a supposedly dead god. So you decide to simply open the door and walk in.

Now you can confirm Loki’s suspicion. Definitely someone was here and looked for clues and by the way it was done, you can tell that it wasn’t the police or any professional. “Do you think, they’re still here?”, you whisper to Loki, who entered right behind you and closed the door silently.  
“I don’t think so, but I’d rather make sure. I’ve grown rather fond of you and it would be a shame to lose you due to lack of caution”, he smiles at you and goes to check the other rooms.

You stand next to the door waiting for him to tell you that everything is safe, but then you see something new but also weirdly familiar. It’s a scarf hanging on the coatrack. You do know that scarf, which isn’t yours and you haven’t seen in over a year.

Suddenly you hear someone screaming. A woman. Then it’s silent again. Loki drags a frightened girl out of the bathroom. Your eyes widen as you recognize her.

“Scheiße! Kati!”, you run towards her, “Alles okay?” The woman, your old friend back from home nods, but still looks incredibly frightened. “You speak German”, Loki says, his eyes narrowing a little, “And you obviously know this intruder.”

At first you want to laugh, because he seems rather surprised. Of course you do speak German, it’s your mother tongue. But then you focus on the situation. “I do know her, this is Katharina. We went to school together, but then we didn’t see each other that often anymore”, you explain. Loki doesn’t move not pleased with your answer. “For gods sake, Loki, let her go! Can’t you see that she’s no threat to us?!”

Reluctantly, he releases her. “And I assume, this old friend of yours does not profess the capability to speak English?”, his tone is ice cold, so you reach out to him and try to calm him. “Her English isn’t that good. I think it would be best, if we spoke alone and I filled you in later.”

“Alright. Do whatever you must, but know that I do not appreciate you bringing in your so called friends to see what is happening here and to gain knowledge of me being alive”, he hisses and walks away. “And I will know, if you try to bullshit me. I’ve picked up some German of my own during my visit in Stuttgart”, he adds, turning around and it does sound like a threat. Nice way to remind you of the time he tried to take over your planet.

You take Katharina’s arm and drag her to the sofa. “Was zur Hölle machst du hier?“ Loki has not left the room, you can see him watching you from the bedroom door. He’s leaning onto the wall, seemingly not caring at all about what you are talking.

„Ich… Ich…“, she stutters, „Ich wollte dich als Überraschung besuchen. Ich hatte gehofft, dass wir wieder mehr zusammen machen nach deinem Auslandssemester. Du bist doch bald fertig mit dem Studium.“  
„Ernsthaft? Die Kati, die ich kenne würde niemals freiwillig einen Fuß in ein englischsprachiges Land setzen“, you reply sceptically.

Loki looks over to the girls. He can her the sceptisicm in (Y/N)’s voice, but he can’t really catch a word of what they’re saying. He deliberately did exaggerate his skills with German. He had decided that he wanted to learn more human languages, because it would be a useful skill, if he wanted to hide something from for example Thanos, but he hadn’t gotten past a few essential words lacking a proper teacher.  
The god thought about, asking (Y/N) about teaching him. Sooner or later she surely would see through his lie, since she was a smart girl.

„Okay, okay…“, the other girl raises her hands in defense, “Ich bin hier, weil deine Eltern sich Sorgen gemacht haben. Also… Nicht nur deine Eltern, aber… Du weißt schon, was ich meine. Sie vertrauen der Polizei nicht. Dein Vater hat ein paar Worte für Polizisten verwendet, die ich hier lieber nicht wiederholen möchte. Und anscheinend hatte er da nicht ganz Unrecht bezüglich der Kompetenzen der Polizei. Ich hab nicht mal eine Stunde gebraucht, um dich zu finden.“

„Du hättest nicht herkommen sollen“, (Y/N) shakes her head. Nervously she fiddles around with the cushions. Katharina looks over to Loki. “Ich kenne ihn. Das ist doch der Typ, der damals die Museumsgesellschaft in Stuttgart attackiert hat.“  
Loki tenses at the way she looks at him. He is well aware that probably anyone from Germany and the US remembers him quite well. After all he was all over the news in both countries back then. And he also heard her mention Stuttgart. 

“Ja, ich weiß“, is all she replies shyly. „Und?“, the other girl looks at her questioning. “Nichts und. Es ist nicht so, als sei er hier um noch ein paar mehr Städte zu attackieren“, she looks at the floor. „Aha. Na das erklärt ja alles“, Katharina has her arms akimbo.  
„Ich mag ihn… und er braucht meine Hilfe…“, she starts to explain herself, but doesn’t get far, because the other girl interrupts her. “Und das ist Grund genug eine verdammte Entführung zu faken?! Scheiße, ich hab mir Sorgen gemacht! Wir alle haben uns Sorgen gemacht!“  
„Aber es ist doch alles gut…“, she tries to calm her friend. Without success. Now she really is shouting at her and Loki decides it best, to put a silencing spell over the entire flat.

“DU HÄTTEST TOT SEIN KÖNNEN, VERDAMMT! DENKST DU ALLEN ERNSTES, DASS DU DAMIT SO EINFACH DAVON KOMMST, (Y/N)?!“  
She looks so small, alone on the couch with the other girl shouting at her and it makes Loki desperately want to comfort her. But it wouldn’t solve anything. Loki knows well that sometimes the only solution can be to just shout at someone until the anger and frustration and hurt is gone. She had seemed so sure of her decision to let go of everything and Loki starts to wonder, if it was wrong to help her.

“Es tut mir leid”, she says in a husky voice. He can see a few tears running down her cheeks and inside he feels the urge to wipe them away and take care of this little girl of his.  
“Ach komm, ich kann dir nicht böse sein, wenn ich dich weinen sehe“, the other girl seems moved by her tears, sits back down and hugs her friend, “Ich weiß, dass du sowas nicht ohne Grund tun würdest. Du bist nicht der Typ Mensch der einfach so Scheiße baut. Wenn du schon sowas drastisches machst, dann gibt es dafür auch einen guten Grund.“  
„Ja…“, she replies softly, „Ich… Ich kann ihn dir nicht sagen. Vertrau mir einfach.“ Katharina shakes her head. „Ich weiß, dass ich dir vertrauen kann. Aber ihm kann ich nicht vertrauen.“ She points at Loki. 

Loki feels insecure. A feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time. Honestly, he has no idea what they are talking about and the way this girl is pointing at her, makes it seem like this is about him. About him being a terrible choice of men and (Y/N) not being supposed to be with him. Him, the god who had tried to conquer earth. Fuck. He didn’t know what to do.


End file.
